Dark Moon
by shadowsky16
Summary: Shinichi and Kaitou Kid have been rivals for years, but what will Shinichi do when he runs into a new crime scene, where Kid is the corpse...wait he's still moving? Immortal!Kaito Kaishin/shinkai
1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER:  I am most certainly not creative enough to own something as awesome as Detective Conan/Caseclosed, that's Gosho's job.

AU, Somethings you need to know, Shinichi never shrunk into Conan, Shinichi's parents still live with him and didn't go to America, and the BO is not targeting Kid for reasons that will be explained if I ever get the patience to continue this...some good reviews would definetly help, also any ideas would be welcome.

Anyway...on with the story.

Chapter 1

"Damn it!"

"How'd he get away this time?"

"Oh, don't even get me started on that stupid thief!" Nakamouri growled.

Shinichi sighed. This was going to be another very long night. It was just after 10:00 on June 21st and Kaitou Kid's third heist of the month was underway. Despite his preference for homicides Shinichi had attended every one of Kid's heists since he was fifteen (which had received many raised eyebrows, especially from his parents). When Shinichi had received the new heist note he had felt strangely bothered by it. It was..._different_ from any of the other notes he'd seen, though he couldn't for the life of him understand why that was. Shinichi had spent hours alone in the library simply pondering it even after he'd figured out the riddle with a little help from his father (not that Shinichi would ever admit to needing his help).

"After him men!" Nakamouri-keibu roared and the remaining members of his taskforce (the rest had been lost to Kid's various traps, including one that involved a bunch of mirrors, at least a kilo of bird feathers, and of course some super glue) charged down the stairs to get to their police cars in an attempt to chase the thief.

Honestly, didn't they ever learn?

Shinichi yawned.

"You know, it's quite rude of you to come to my heists and then act bored to death."

Shinichi didn't even bother to turn around. Instead he opted to greet the thief coolly.

"Hello, Kid."

Kid smirked. He'd been hiding behind the statue containing the jewel he'd come to steal after making his traditional fake escape via smoke bomb and dummy piloted hang- glider.

"Sorry Meitantei, but I don't have time to talk with you tonight. I have a date with Destiny."

Shinichi blinked. Well that was new. Usually the thief would ask him how he'd seen though his trick by this point. Shinichi would explain his reasoning and then the two would begin their ritualistic battle which almost always involved deadly weapons...namely soccer balls and a Card gun. Shinichi frowned. Did this sudden deviation have something to do with the strange heist note?

Kid's smirk turned into a full blown grin, as if he could hear exactly what Shinichi was thinking.

"You know Meitantei, since this could very well be the last night we see each other, I have something special planned for you, as a sort of birthday present."

Shinichi stared at the thief as if he were insane...something that had been a topic of debate on many morning talk shows.

"What? It's not my birthday."

The thief snickered. "I never said it was a birthday present for _you_, Meitantei."

Which, of course, only served to make Shinichi more confused. "Then whose is it?"

Instead of answering, Kid made a break for the stairs leading up to the roof. Caught off guard, Shinichi swore under his breath. The thief had been stalling him! But would the thief really have said all that just to catch him off guard? Surely there were plenty of other ways for him to do that... but if the words weren't just for distraction then just what was the thief trying to convey? Shinichi continued to grumble under his breath as he raced after the thief up to the roof, making no secret of his arrival by mercilessly banging the roof door open.

In contrast to his forceful arrival, the detective proceeded by cautiously stepped out into the cool night air. He absently noted that it was rather windy. Would Kid be able to make his traditional aerial get away? However, the greater part of his attention was captured by the white clad thief, who was currently standing perilously close to the edge of the rooftop. He was holding the sapphire, by the name of Angel's Tear, up to the full moon. A habit of his, though Shinichi still hadn't figured out why he did it.

The one time he'd dared to ask the thief he'd sorely regretted it, considering he'd ended up going home with purple hair and a "Please Knock some sense into me so I don't ask stupid questions to thieves and actually expect answers" sign glued onto the back of his shirt. The purple dye he managed to get out in a month, however, he'd never been able to get the sign off and had ended up burning his shirt in a furnace out of spite (much to the dismay of his mother and Ran).

Pulling himself back into the present and away from thoughts of burnt property, Shinichi noticed that the thief's expression had changed from his usual knowing smirk to an expression of absolute triumph. Shinichi edged his way closer to Kid, trying not to startle the thief who was still too close to the roof's edge for comfort. "Kid?"

The thief had begun shaking despite the greatly triumphant look on his face. Shinichi reached out warily, intending to grab onto the criminal's shoulder when said thief started to laugh. His laughter sounded one part insane and two parts hysterical, and his body shook even harder. Shinichi couldn't help but take a step back. He'd heard this sort of laughter before, mostly from murderers and kidnappers and it wasn't something he had ever associated with the Moonlight Magician in front of him. Just what was going on?

Instead of subsiding, the thief's laughter continued to gain in intensity until the magician was practically keeling over from the strain on his lungs.

"Oi! Kid!"

"This is it, Meitantei!" The thief gasped, his laughter finally subsiding as he recognised the detective's presence.

"The day has finally come! I've finally found it!"

The thief held the jewel up to the moon again, and now that Shinichi was actually paying attention to the sapphire he could see how the middle turned blood red and a soft beam of red light shone down onto the thief's monocle. If Shinichi hadn't already known the true source of the beam he would have thought that the thief's masked eye was projecting it. The uncovered indigo eye was gleaming with- wait was that tears?! Now Shinichi was positive that something was wrong with his rival. Kid never cried. Especially not in front of the Great Detective of the East, the Hesei Holmes, and the person whom the public viewed as Kid's greatest rival.

The first time they had faced off against each other was when Shinichi had been fifteen and had be allowed to go to the heist thanks to Megure keibu's support- much to the ire of one foul mouthed keiji in charge of Kid heists. Shinichi had stunned the entire police force by successfully retrieving the gem before the thief could make off with it and the next morning the newspapers had all been screaming more or less the same head line. "MODERN DAY ARESENE LUPIN FOILED! HAS THE HESEI HOLMES FOUND A RIVAL!?" Shinichi had found it to be absolutely ridiculous and had said as much to anyone within hearing range (which mainly consisted of his parents, Ran, and his next door neighbour Agasa). The resulting clashes that came after, all ended more or less the same but were never any less exciting.

Kid always had new ways of surprising Shinichi no matter what stage they were on, whether it be up in a plane or more generally in a tall building. To Shinichi, Kid's heists had always been a welcome opportunity to test his deductive skills generally without any real consequences (such as the murder of yet another victim) and had soon become an integrated part of his life. It had been three years since the first meeting and Shinichi had just turned eighteen. Shinichi was once again pulled out of his thoughts (he needed to stop doing that!) by the staring of an insane thief.

"W-what?" he stammered. His cheeks heating up in embarrassment. Kid chuckled. He seemed to have regained his composure while Shinichi was lost in thought.

"You haven't made any attempt to handcuff me even though we've been standing here for almost ten minutes already." The magician stated with apparent amusement.

Shinichi huffed. "It's not worth the effort. You'll just laugh in my face and use your hang- glider to get away and then return the jewel in some mocking matter..."

He trailed off at the strange look of apathy on the thief's face. The following silence almost felt...guilty?

"No." Kid murmured, finally breaking the silence.

"No?" Shinichi questioned. What the heck was the kaitou thinking?

"I will not be returning this jewel." Kid enlightened him. Shinichi felt a sudden chill go through him that had nothing to do with the wind still blowing with quiet intensity around them.

"W-what? Why not?"

Kid smiled. A surprisingly soft and somewhat melancholy smile that rooted Shinichi in place.

Instead of answering, Kid slipped the sapphire into oneof the hidden compartments in his suit. He then took a few steps toward Shinichi until he was standing right in front of him. Way too close for personal comfort. Shinichi's legs still refused to obey him as the thief leaned in to whisper into his ear. "That's right, I still haven't gotten that Birthday present yet."

Unable to keep up with the thief's train of thought, Shinichi could only gawk at him as the moonlight magician leaned back from Shinichi's ear only to proceed to press his lips against the detective's forehead...

Eh?

The contact only lasted for about three seconds before the thief pulled away and activated his hang- glider. Shinichi's brain tried to keep up with the flurry of emotions and thoughts that bombarded him after the unexpected contact. Meanwhile the jewel thief waved at him cheerily as he proceeded to jump off the roof with a loud shout. "Goodbye, Meitentai! I had a tremendous amount of fun playing with you...but it ends here." And with that he was gone.

Shinichi stared at the place the thief jumped off in shock. Those last words had been disturbingly ominous. The Detective blinked when his brain caught up enough to point out one very important fact.

_The wind_.

By this point it was howling. Shinichi's normally well kept hair was being heartlessly messed, as if some unseen wind spirit had taken issue with it. But...Kid had left via hang-glider despite that. What the heck had the thief been thinking?! Shinichi knew he was insane but surely not _that _insane! Shinichi ran to the stairwell leading down from the roof. Surely the thief wouldn't be able to get very far before he was forced to land...that's if he didn't end up crashing into a building first.

Damn that stupid thief!

The thief had used his glider despite the wind...could it be that he hadn't been planning on going very far in the first place? If that were the case then he probably had a picked out landing spot close by. Perhaps he even had an assistant waiting to help him. But why take the chance even if that were the case? Why stay close to the heist building, with the police still scouring around it in droves? Even up on the roof top he had stayed for an unusually long amount of time before making his escape. Almost as if he was reluctant to go. Like a high school student preparing to leave home knowing he had a big math test at school. Shinichi`s frown turned into a scowl. Enough thinking! As a detective it was his job to find answers, not lollygag!

_And that's exactly what I`m going to do! _Shinichi thought determinedly.

He'd finally gotten out of the building's entrance and had to flail a bit to keep his balance as the wind knocked into he with a vengeance upon his reappearance in its clutches. The safe haven of the heist building now behind him, Shinichi battled the elements as he tried to figure out where the thief had been carried off to.

The wind is blowing east-ward but Kid had jumped from the North side of the building so he would at least get a few kilometers of distance before things got too chancy, he deduced. Shinichi decided to try anyway even though there was little chance of him actually finding the thief before he either escaped or –heaven forbid- someone called the police to report a corpse in white.

The Hesei Holmes gritted his teeth at the thought, finding himself surprising depressed by it. It wasn`t like he hadn't seen dead bodies before after all. He practically ran into them on a daily basis, causing Division one's officers to affectionately (and with no small amount of exasperation**) nickname** him Shinigami-kun.

Shinichi started off down an alley that gave him protection from the wind. He continued on for about ten minutes before a loud bang! Was heard from his left and Shinichi cursed. Why now?!

Shinichi knew that he couldn't ignore a potential murder in interest of chasing a relatively harmless thief. So he reluctantly gave up the chase in favour of following the sound of the gun shot. But when he arrived at the scene of the crime, he froze in absolute horror. The reason came in the form of a solitary figure dressed in a now blood stained white suit, laying in a puddle of blood.

No, I didn't kill Kaito! So don't worry, this isn't labeled tragedy after all.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I Own Nothing.

Big thanks to everyone who reviewed and favourited, I was literally jumping for joy that people were reading this story. I would have updated sooner but I've been sick for the pat three days. (Cough, cough)

Warnings: A very OOC Kaito, some angst, run on sentences and horrible dialogue skills(Will hopefully be better dialogue in later chapters.

Chapter 2 

He couldn't move. Shinichi stood frozen, unable to believe his eyes and the horrible scene they so cheerfully provided. Shinichi wished he could just block it all out but his detective mind—honed to a razor point from witnessing many similar scenes before—automatically took in all the details. The crimson blood slowly and tortuously spreading from the prone body. His cape caught and folded underneath him (the hang-glider had been deactivated) and the arms thrown out on either side like a fallen dove. The gun that lay at his side...and no other person in sight. Shinichi clenched his fist as anger and horror welled up within him. _Why_? Why had it come to this? The one person in the world he had never associated with murder...whose heists he'd gone to as a sanctuary to get away from the constant violence and cruelty that he saw in his life...had now become apart of that world as well.

Shinichi forced himself to move closer, he had to examine Ki—the body and then call the police. He managed to get his legs working just enough to get beside _him_ (avoiding the blood as much as possible)and examine the injuries, although he had no hope that the thief had survived. He had been shot straight through the heart after all. Even if that didn't kill him then the amount of blood loss most certainly would. Even though he knew what he would find Shinichi still reached out to check Ki—the corpse's wrist to check for a pulse. But before he could there was a low groan and the detective jumped back in shock, whipping his head around for the source of the noise, but there was nobody except the two of them. A second groan, followed by a muffled curse had Shinichi's already fried nerves being thrown into the fire.

Movement.

A gloved hand came up to meet a forehead as Shinichi continued to watch, stunned. The bloodstained cloth of his chest moving up and down in a steady rhythm. Then another muffled curse was sounded as the owner of the noises unsteadily rose to his feet with no concern about the blood that continued to pour down in steady streams.

"Damn!" the thief swore, "Why am I still alive?"

If it weren't for the gruesomeness of the situation, Shinichi would have burst out laughing. He'd seen so many people die at young ages. Victims who would have probably have given anything to survive and yet the thief actually sounded disappointed!

As it was, a small chuckle escaped him and Kid turned around in surprise at the sound. The movement allowed Shinichi to catch a glimpse of something shining behind him. After closer examination the detective saw that it was the sapphire...or rather what was left of it. The jewel had been smashed into a million pieces as if the smasher had a huge grudge against it. Shinichi frowned. He highly doubted that it had ended up that way due to a crash landing especially since there was no evidence of one in sight. But then...

"Why did you destroy the gem?" he demanded.

The thief stared at him. "That's it?"

Shinichi blinked. "Huh?"

"No, 'Why are you covered in blood?!' or 'You need to go to the hospital, you stupid thief!', just 'why did you destroy the gem?'"

Shinichi flushed. He had been thinking about that but his brain had decided to grasp onto minor details in an effort to cope with situation.

"Hospital? You should be dead!" The detective growled and then mentally smacked himself for the oh, so brilliant reply. This situation was really getting to him.

The magician had the nerve to grin at him. "You're right about that, Meitantei." He smirked but then his face took on a more serious expression as he looked down at his own blood stained suit.

"You're right..."He repeated softly. "So why didn't it work?"

Shinichi opened his mouth to reply but found he couldn't. His logical brain simply couldn't compute with what his eyes saw. A walking corpse.

After a moment of silence, Kid collected himself enough to realise the situation he was in. That A) the detective had managed to find him even after his escape from the heist building, B) despite Meitantei having a strange dedication to the unwritten rules of his heists he was still very much a detective who would throw him in jail the minute he could, and C) the detective would no doubt demand answers he couldn`t give and it would be prudent of him to leave now while the Hesei Holmes was still in shock.

"Well then, Meitantei," Kid said cheerfully. Poker face fully in effect. "Goodnight."

"Wait a minute!" Shinichi protested. He couldn't seriously be trying to simply leave after everything that happened! "You owe me an explanation! How are you...how...?"

The thief's flinch was just barely noticeable to Shinichi's sharp eyes. The magician held up his hands in a surrendering position.

"I guess I've broken my record," Kid said, wistfully looking at the shattered sapphire. "I won't be able to return this one after all."

Shinichi scowled at the thief's attempt to redirect the conversation. "But...!" A flash and a cloud of pink smoke interrupted him and when it cleared the thief was gone.

(Kaito's POV)

Kaito looked up at the large mansion that belonged in a horror film with annoyance. He hadn't been looking forward to coming here but he needed answers and the witch was the only one who could provide them. The two of them had a...difficult relationship. They had known each other for a long time and had been in a hate and not-quite-friends relationship for almost as long as Kaito could remember. He could never understand what Akako was thinking. Moreover, she just plain creeped him out with her numerous schemes to try and make him fall in love with her. All of which ranged from love potions to flat out trying to kill him. Luckily those attempts had died down in the last fifty years and the two could be called acquaintances if not friends. Kaito knocked on the door and didn't even flinch when Akako's creepy servant answered right away. He'd managed to get over it after the first few hundred times.

"Young sir," The deformed man said. "Do come in, the young madam is waiting for you." Kaito nodded, and the servant proceeded to lead him down a long, dark corridor, candlelight in hand. Honestly, you'd think Akako would have heard about electricity by now.

Finally, they reached a large door with handles in the shape of snakes, similar to the ones Akako wore on that weird outfit she had worn the first time she had tried to kill him. The servant slowly pulled the door open and gestured him inside. Akako was standing at the far end of the room fiddling with bottles of various potions and poisons. She was currently examining one that was an extremely nauseating shade of green. Kaito pitied the poor love struck fool that would be forced to drink it for the sake of Akako's whims.

Akako looked over at him with an amused expression. "My, my, what's this? It appears that the little dove has remained in the land living. How fortunate." Despite the superiorly sarcastic tone, Kaito thought he caught a hint of relief in her words.

"Akako, what's going on? You said that destroying the gem would break the curse!"

Akako considered him for a moment before laughing in that irritatingly knowing way and Kaito had to suppress the urge to dye her hair blue. Not only would it not help his situation but would no doubt get turned him into a toad. Her favourite colour was red after all, and he knew that the electric blue of the dye would send her on a rampage.

"Well, that was true," She admitted, "however, you seem to be misunderstanding one crucial point."

Not in the mood for cryptic remarks, but having no real choice but follow along since that was the only way he was going to get an answer, Kaito responded with a feigned patience only afforded him from many years practicing his poker face. "And that would be...?"

Akako smirked, reveling in having the upper hand over him. "Why it's very simple Kaito-kun, you see, while Pandora was what kept you in this state for all these years it was not the original source of the curse laid upon you. It was merely a container for it."

She paused, and Kaito could already tell he wasn't going to like the next words out of her mouth (Not that he usually liked any of the words out of her mouth especially the death threats she had been so fond of sending him).

"What are saying?"

"What I'm saying is simple, since the curse was designed to keep you from dying until you served _that woman's_ purpose, there a high chance...no a 100% chance that should it's light be shone in the moonlight, it would switch to a new container."

Akako turned away, actually being considerate enough to allow him to absorb the meaning of her words before continuing.

"In others words, the curse shifted itself to another object as a safety mechanism before you were able to destroy it along with the jewel."

"Did you know about this?" Kaito whispered, unable to believe that all his searching had been in vain but even more unable to believe that Akako would have known about it but not seen fit to tell him about something so important. After all, even though she was an annoyingly cryptic and bizarre Witch he had thought they had come to a sort of agreement to help each other out on important matters. But it looked like Akako had been setting him up for failure from the start.

"I suspected it." She said, shrugging. "But I couldn't be certain and there was really no other way to find the cursed gem since my magic is unable to detect it due to _that woman's_ interfering forces."

Kaito clenched his fists. So it was all hopeless? At least before he'd had some idea of what to look for but now...the curse could have latched itself onto _anything_. Despite himself, Kaito began to feel the claws of despair ripping through him. He'd never wanted this! To be forced to live on while watching the people you cared about leave you behind. To have nothing in the world to live for other than one solitary goal...and now even that was gone. After all Kaito no longer had any clue where to start. The hopelessness was eating away at him even as he tried to fight it back. He must not have been doing a very good job as Akako seemed to have picked up on his emotions and was frowning at him.

"Honestly, Kaito-kun," She sighed, "When I said the curse transferred to another container I didn't mean that it could be anything in the world. After all, even _her _power isn't that strong. The farthest it could have jumped would have been about one kilometer away but it would have most likely gone to something much closer than that to save energy."

Akako held back a smile at the hope that was unbiddenly crawling back into the thief's face. It wouldn't do to act like she cared after all.

"Oh, and by the way," she added lightly, "It is a habit of yours to show up in blood stained suits to all the people you visit, or it just me?"

Kaito blinked and flushed as he realised that he was indeed still wearing his Kid costume from the heist, bloodstain and all. He had been so determined to get answers that he had completely forgotten to change into more suitable clothes before coming here. A foolish mistake he hadn't made in years! He could only hope that nobody noticed him coming here.

"Well, you always were an exception, Akako-hime." He returned as lightly as he could. "Besides I thought you would have liked it, seeing how much you like the colour red."

Akako huffed. "Go home and get changed you silly thief and make sure no one sees you. I don't want people believing I'm being visited by moonlight thieves." She said, and Kaito snorted. He knew she was often visited by much worse things than harmless kaitous after all, namely the demon Lucifer whom she always seemed delighted to invite over for a chat. But he supposed he owed it to her. She had been more straightforward then usual and had even tried to cheer him up in her own peculiar way.

"Thank you for the help, ojou-sama." He said, giving a gentlemanly bow as his father had taught him so many years ago. "I shall now take my leave and bid you good night."

"Don't forget about school in the morning Kaito-kun," Akako teased, knowing how much he hated the dreadful place but was still forced to go due to his apparent age. Kaito inwardly sighed. Why couldn't he have stopped aging at a more appropriate age like say twenty instead of eighteen? He could have simply disguised himself as an older person but he disliked being in persona for longer than he had to and Akako had all but forced him into staying in class with the classic "If I'm going down I'm taking you with me" mentality. Though the witch could have easily stayed out of school if she really wanted to, Kaito knew she went just to be surrounded by her adoring fans—or rather love sick idiots in Kaito's opinion.

"Hai, hai, I'll see you at school Akako-chan." With that he escaped with the use of yet another pink smoke bomb. Akako rolled her eyes, spotting the not completely closed window that the thief had utilized. "Honestly, he could have just have used the door like a _real_ gentleman."

(TBC)

I don't know how to use dividers on this site so brackets it is. Feedback is welcome but no flames please.


	3. Ch 3 Answers

AN note please read. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and thank you Chatterbox Angel for the writing tips. I'm going to try my best to fix those run on sentences. Also Shinichi's OOCness...can I just blame that on him being shocked? NO? Damn. Anyway, for those of you who are still confused this is an AU. I put info that you needed to know for this AU in the AN note at the beginning of the first chapter. The rest will hopefully be explained as the story goes on.

Warnings: OOCness, bad writing style, etc

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING.

Chapter 3

The next morning at Edoka High-school, Akako was watching a certain messy haired prankster cause havoc. There had already been three mop chases, two wardrobe changes, and an afro haired Hakuba. And it wasn't even 9:00. Akako, of course, was completely unaffected. Despite their long years of acquaintanceship she knew that Kaito was too afraid to try pranking her.

She had been worried about how the magician would respond to last night's discussion, and now she had her answer. An even worse pranking spree than normal with all the hyperactive energy of a kaitou on a sugar high. And here she was thinking that he might actually be depressed! ...unless this was his version of depressed, it was hard to tell.

Kaito was currently teasing the police-officer's girl, Nakamouri Aoko. Ever since they met the girl in fresh-man year (they couldn't pretend to be any younger than high-school students) the messy-haired young woman had taken it as her personal duty to put the rule breaking magician in his place. This was often achieved (or rather attempted) through the use of cleaning utensils. Even Akako had to admit that the fiery girl was formidable with highly trained mop-fu.

When lunch time came around, Akako dragged Kaito up to the roof for further discussion. The walk was unnervingly silent and Akako found herself wishing the other would say something. As soon as they had gotten out of the class room, the magician had dropped his smile in favour of a thoughtful expression. With his audience no longer around, Kaito didn't bother to act the idiotic prankster and instead focused on the issues that had been prodding him throughout the morning.

"Akako-chan, you said that the curse would have been transferred to a close-by object, right?" He asked as soon as they got to the roof and out of hearing range.

Akako nodded. "Although it's true that the curse could potentially be transferred to any object with enough container room, it's far more likely that it would seek out an object of similar composition to its previous container. And one that was as close as possible. Tell me, Kaito-kun, did the heist building contain any gems other than Pandora?"

Kaito sighed. "Pandora was being presented at a _gem-exhibition_ Akako-chan. There was at least a hundred other jewels being showcased there. And of course yesterday just _happened_ to be the last day of the exhibition so now the jewels are being sent back to their respective owners." Kaito shook his head in hopeless frustration while Akako watched him with amusement.

"Seems you have a lot of work ahead of you, my dear phantom thief." She grinned. "Unless you get lucky and manage to find it on the first go."

"Even if Lady Luck did have mercy and helped me find the new Pandora, how am I supposed to prevent it from doing another transfer?"

Akako tilted her head in consideration. "Hmm...perhaps I'll be able to create an object or spell to interfere with the transferring process. Though I doubt it would be possible to completely contain the spell." She shrugged. "I'll think about it... but you're getting ahead of yourself. First you have to plan your next heist."

**(Over to Shinichi, I'll use these brackets for transition since dividers are still not working)**

"Shin-channnn~"

Shinichi groaned and did his best to ignore his horribly chipper mother while said woman proceeded to crush the air from him.

"What?"

"There's a phone call for you from Megure-keibu concerning your favourite thief!"

Shinichi sighed in exasperation. His mother had somehow gotten it into her head that he went to Kid's heists to befriend the thief rather than to catch him. Of course, any attempts to correct her had been useless. Her current bright mood was a contrast to a week before when he'd returned from that fateful heist. He'd stumbled in the doorway in abject shock and had been immediately barraged by his mother's concerned questions. His father had watched him with something between confusion and curiosity. Shinichi had been reluctant to tell them about Kid's revival from the dead. He had never been the type to share his worries and rarely gave out information without a reason. But his parents being who they were had easily forced it out of him. His parents had then spent the rest of the night debating about whether they should send him to a therapist. Obviously all this time being around corpses had done a number on his mental health. Shinichi sighed. It wasn't like he had actually expected them to believe his story but a little more trust would have been nice.

His mother handed him the phone and then left with a cheerful wave. Shinichi steeled himself. After Kid had failed to return the heist the police force had been in a general panic with the owner of the gem pressuring them to retrieve it. Shinichi had considered telling Megure-keibu about the jewel's demise but had decided not to since he would then have to explain why he knew. He certainly didn't want to go through that again. He'd had nightmares about the thief's dead body and woken up in a panic every night since the heist. While his parents had respected his wish not to see a doctor he could tell they were worried about his lack of sleep along with his already insane hours of school and detective work. The detective sighed as he forced the memories away to deal with later. Right now he had work to do.

"Hello Megure-keibu"

"Ah Kudo-kun!" The man greeted amiably. He had a soft spot for Shinichi and always seemed glad to see him. Admittedly that was probably just because Shinichi could solve cases for him. Shinichi shook his head, annoyed with himself for thinking such petty thoughts. What was with him? He couldn't seem to think clearly anymore.

_It's all that stupid thief's fault._

"Kudo-kun?"

Shinichi started. He knew that he had a bad habit of getting lost in thought to the point of losing connection with the rest of the world. It was especially bad when he was reading his beloved Sherlock Holmes collection. His Father had once "experimented" on him during such a time and when he had finally gotten around to putting down the Sign of four book he had been covered in his mother's make-up.

"Sorry, Megure-Keibu, is it about Kaitou Kid?"

The older man grunted in affirmation. "That thief has certainly done it now. Since he didn't return the sapphire the higher ups have decided to take him seriously, as if he wasn't really a criminal before!"

Shinichi chuckled. Despite Kid being an internationally wanted criminal, jewel owners often grew complacent due to his reputation of always returning what he stole. Now that the thief had truly stolen the jewel the owner was having a near heart attack. The police were also being blamed for "going easy on the thief" and "allowing" the gem to get stolen in the first place.

"As if that weren't bad enough," the homicide detective continued, "Kid just sent a new heist note to the station. Nakamouri-keibu is going crazy, cursing up a typhoon rather than just his regular storm. There is more pressure on him to catch the thief than ever before."

Shinichi's ears perked up at hearing the words 'heist' and 'note' in the same sentence. Despite himself Shinichi had never been one to turn down a code.

"May I take a look at that note?"

"Of course, that's the reason I called. Can you make it to the police station by 3:00?"

"I'll be there."

Shinichi hung up the phone but continued to hold it as it held all the world's answers. Answers...that was exactly what he needed. He needed to confront Kid. Who had killed the thief...or rather tried? Why had the thief smashed the jewel? How was the thief still alive?

The confusion was killing him. He would definitely get it out of the moonlight magician even if he had to wring his beautiful neck to do so. Wait..._beautiful_? Shinichi shook his head fiercely as his mind unbiddenly strayed to one more important question.

What had that kiss to his forehead been about?

(TBC)


End file.
